Hyperreality As Well As a Curveball Thrown at the World of Today Filled with Uncertainties
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BITTER MEDICINE #02 17.09.2020-31.01.2021 1 Temporary Exhibition ABBREVIATIONS BITTER MEDICINE #02 September 17, 2020 - January 31, 2021 Borusan Contemporary Perili Köşk, Rumelihisarı :mK :mentalKLINIK Curator KE Dr. Kumru Eren Dr. Necmi Sönmez NS Dr. Necmi Sönmez Editor and Translation Merve Ünsal OY Osman Can Yerebakan Serra Yentürk AD Ayşe Draz Proofreading Burak Mert Çiloğlugil NC Naz Cuguoğlu Design MW Marlies Wirth Timuçin Unan FS Fredo De Smet Photographs Özge Balkan AI Artificial Intelligence CCTV Close-circuit Television FAANG Facebook-Amazon-Apple-Netflix-Google FOMO Fear of Missing Out GAFA Google-Amazon-Facebook-Apple IKB International Klein Blue (= PB29, = CI 77007) JOMO Joy of Missing Out MAK Museum für angewandte Kunst (Museum for Applied Arts; Uygulamalı Sanatlar Müzesi) SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art UX User Experience VR Virtual Reality VRT Vlaamse Radio -en Televisieomroeporganisatie (Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting Organisation; 2 :mentalKLINIK BITTER MEDICINE #02 COURSE OF COLORS Gold: Yves Klein Blue: Yves Klein Blue and Green: Fuchsia: 01.10.2020 - 19.10.2020 20.10.2020 - 08.11.2020 09.11.2020 - 19.11.2020 14.09.2020 - 30.09.2020 Turquoise and Rainbow: Fuchsia and Rainbow: Black and Rainbow: 20.11.2020 - 14.12.2020 15.12.2020 - 06.01.2021 07.01.2021 - 31.01.2021 3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 5 BITTER MEDICINE CONVERSATIONS Dr. Necmi Sönmez Dr. Kumru Eren, Dr. Necmi Sönmez, Osman Can Yerebakan Open Laboratory / Hyper-Reality-Simulation / Analyzing Today 15 PIGMENT, GLITTER, PIXEL: 6 On the Element of Color in :mentalKLINIK’s BITTER MEDICINE #02 Dr. Necmi Sönmez Ayşe Draz, Naz Cuguoğlu Performative Spectatorship, Oxymoron Aesthetic of :mentalKLINIK, 22 *AN HOMAGE TO YVES KLEIN 9 Taking a Third Position From Object to Hyperobject: Leaving a Trace in the Void Dr. Kumru Eren Marlies Wirth, Fredo De Smet Hybrid Reality, Immateriality Again in the 21st Century 27 A CONVERSATION WITH :mentalKLINIK 11 Merve Ünsal 4 of the recipients, such as accessibility of the exhibition space, social distance, etc. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK At first glance, the images of BITTER MEDICINE #02, which draws attention with their unusual beauty, mobility and colorfulness, takes the “intermediate visibility” in the virtual DR. NECMİ SÖNMEZ environment and highlights the “light sources”, provoking questions of why and how. This is a transition into the realm of hyperreality as well as a curveball thrown at the world of today filled with uncertainties. Thus, the recipient is faced with a visuality, the colors and In the era of the quarantine set in motion by the global pandemic BITTER MEDICINE #02 lights of which are differentiated in their volumes to create a sense of curiosity. This opens exhibition project developed by the artist duo :mentalKLINIK (Yasemin Baydar, Birol Demir), up a discussion on the concepts of hyperstimulation1 that can be discussed in the same consists of shaping comprehensive ideas of the future without an objectification in a virtual orbit with the dematerialization2 concept defined by Lucy R. Lippard in 1973. environment during this time of withdrawal that affects the whole world. Dematerialization is one of the building blocks of Contemporary Art History as a concept that There is a close relationship between the BITTER MEDICINE #02 and the “black swans”, Conceptual Art has opened up to discussion. Hyperstimulation is a concept questioned by which are defined as symbols of the disasters affecting the earth. Within this framework, :mentalKLINIK, bringing the excitement beyond the stimulation of the five senses. Because, it is possible to bring together the black swans, which represent the periodic, intensified in this exhibition, the recipient grasps the images created by the glitter, activated by the pressure, with two artists who have preferred black clothes since 2007. Developed as “a decisions of the robots with the possibilities of their own devices (mobile phone, laptop bitter medicine” at a time when the global art scene is disrupted, the exhibition project aims computer) on which they can experience the exhibition. Since all the stimuli required for to transcend the boundaries of the established norms of digital exhibitions to eliminate the both the formation and perception of visuality in the exhibition are shaped virtually through boundaries between the work and the recipient. digital platforms, “fundamentalist experimentation” makes itself evident at every step. The starting point of the presentation of this series at Borusan Contemporary, the second This feature gives the exhibition a research-oriented character, a harbinger of the fact that rendition after the Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art, is the Puff Out installation set up in the near future the seeds mixed into the soil of the digital environment will reveal to us in the gallery space. Instant patterns are created by the endless and repetitive movements with completely different facts that are “data-based”. of eight intelligent robotic vacuum cleaners in the glitter-covered space, producing BITTER MEDICINE #02 cracks open the lid of the pandora box of digital aesthetics, revealing combinations of light and form. The site-specific installation, which reaches the viewers the visuality in which egocentric moments of happiness, excitement, and enthusiasm digitally 24/7 via Borusan Contemporary’s website, has a multi-layered structure. Visuality presented here is based on both technical and methodical stimulations. It is created by dance. This is the beginning of an almost seductive journey when considered together the glitter constantly moving with the enthusiasm of robots. Every instant situation not with the stunning rainbow effects that the glitter creates. only presents the colors and forms that change in an unrepeatable way, but also turns the gallery into a space where different visual experiences are fermented. This feature, Endnotes which is defined as the microclimate area by :mentalKLINIK, is a step taken in the name 1 :mentalKLINIK-Jérôme Sans interview “Microclimate Zone” in :mentalKLINIK (La Patinoire Royale / Galerie Valérie of the future, just like the soil in which a seed has fallen. BITTER MEDICINE # 02, which Bach). 2018. Obnoxiously Happy [Exhibition catalogue]. Brussels, s.104 is physically designed and represented on the digital platform, shapes its hybrid identity 2 Lippard, L.R. (1997). Six Years: The Dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972 (Expanded second edition). 24/7 in a virtual environment, examines the form of moving image—a primary expression University of California Press, California. of discourse in New Media Art—, shedding the barriers which determine the perceptions 5 PIGMENT, GLITTER, PIXEL: ON THE ELEMENT OF COLOR IN :mentalKLINIK’S BITTER MEDICINE #02 DR. NECMİ SÖNMEZ The colors of the glitter used by :mentalKLINIK in the BITTER MEDICINE #02 project are switched at specific time intervals. ThePuff Out installation, which is the focus of the work, is based on the instant patterns created by the endless and non-repetitive movements of eight smart robotic vacuum cleaners on a floor covered with glitter, and the digital transfer of light and form combinations to the audience 24/7 via the Borusan Contemporary website, facilitated by online systems. The project, which was launched with fuchsia-colored glitter on September 14, and moved on to the gold color on September 30, continues with the Yves Klein Blue from October 19 onwards. Yves Klein, who has played an important role in contemporary art history, carried on his legacy to our day with the color he named after himself. In this article, I aim to develop a perspective that examines :mentalKLINIK’s approach to this iconic artist as well as the color interpretations they developed in the BITTER MEDICINE #02 project. In his short life (1928-1962), Yves Klein put his signature on important projects one after the other, placing conceptual and performative elements with experimental characteristics on the backbone of his practice. Among them, the ultramarine blue color, which he patented in 1960 as International Klein Blue, (IKB, = PB29, = CI 77007), holds particular significance.1 After investigating the psychological effects of colors for a long time between 1949-55, Klein experimented with organic powder paints that create the indigo color. Using a special adhesive material (Rhodopas) that does not spoil the shiny effect of the powder paint, Klein became the creator of a blue color that almost drew in the onlooker. Using this color in his canvases after 1956, the artist reached international recognition in a short time with the exhibitions he opened one after the other. What made Klein one of the critical figures of the Avant-garde was an exhibition he opened in 6 Paris in 1960 in the Galerie Iris Clert under the title of Le Vide [The Void].2 The artist had created a performance by painting the walls of the small gallery white, without exhibiting a work of art.3 Klein’s canvases and sculptures using ultramarine blue remained on the agenda of the international art scene after his death and became an inspirational resource for many generations of artists. Today, Yves Klein Blue (IKB), which maintains its iconic effect, appears as a visual reference point in the exhibition BITTER MEDICINE #02. Having developed a different color interpretation in the 1950s, Klein’s starting point was natural pigments. The starting point of the color interpretation developed by :mentalKLINIK in 2020 is the glitter that is produced industrially in octagonal shapes. With the character of a ready- made, glitter clearly refers to the pixel phenomenon that forms the basis of the digital production model, as glitter is shaped by the effects of light falling on it. It is possible to interpret the different perceptions left by the colors of BITTER MEDICINE #02 on the audience as an integrated radical action that eliminates the line between reality and fiction, within the framework of the concept of Hyper-Reality4, which emerged after an extensive period of research for :mentalKLINIK.